At the School in the Cloud, volunteer ‘grannies’ use Skype to help some of the world’s poorest children teach themselves. Could mainstream education learn from them?Every week Lorraine Schneiter, a former Open University tutor, sits down in front of her computer, opens up Skype, and calls a group of children in India. And then they chat.What about? “It depen […]

Teaching unions concerned by increase in young pupils expelled for assaulting adults A rise in pupils excluded by primary schools has caused the first increase in exclusions from English state schools for eight years, with teaching unions concerned by an increase in young pupils expelled for assaulting adults.Figures published by the Department for Education […]

As the summer break is in full swing for most UK pupils, we’ve swapped this month’s teaching resource for a brief look back at how previous generations of children enjoyed their freedom from the classroom - as captured in images from the GNM Archive. Continue reading...

Demands for times table tests on the first day of school, Yale applications for six-year-olds – pushy parents are making my students’ lives a miseryMore from the Secret TeacherAs teaching goes, I have little cause for complaint. I work with sparky, engaged students in a small independent preparatory school. My classroom was once a grand family dining room. I […]

One vice-chancellor asks if it’s time to shake up the process and make it less intimidating and more meaningful to studentsClearing is a vital part of the student recruitment cycle. It gives prospective students a chance to revisit application choices in light of their A-level results, or because they have changed their mind about the course they wish to stu […]

There has been a lot of talk about how election pledges have been broken on tuition fees and on child benefit. Lots of column inches, hours of radio and television and bucket loads of spin. It was hard to watch TV, listen to the radio or read a paper without seeing the DPM telling of his angst and regret.

Almost unnoticed except for a small article in The Guardian, see it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/24/michael-gove-pupil-premium – was the news that the Minister of Education had revealed that the funding for the ‘Pupil Premium’ was not in fact ‘new money’ but would largely come out of other schools funding . Why is this important? It’s important because the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Education Minister have all previously said that it would come from outside the Education budget. Was it a mistake, sophistry or downright deception? I suppose we will never know.

What I do know is that through skilful spin it has not emerged as a big issue and was not widely reported. Because of this the government’s media monitors/advisers will clap themselves on the back and say that nobody is making a fuss about this so you can go ahead and push on and cut more money from budgets for poor or disadvantaged pupils . It’s cynical, nasty and demonstrates their true colours.

You can’t do anything about the parliament at the moment because the first thing the government did was to fix the election term and make 51% the margin for a vote of no confidence. You can however influence them by campaigning in the media. I admire the skill of the Conservative spin doctors because they have made the Liberal members of the cabinet take most of the heat. They do have a weakness though in that we have seen the Prime Minister have some spectacular wobbles when public opinion goes very much against them eg. Child Benefit.

If we want a society in which we look after the vulnerable and believe in an equitable (not ‘FAIR’ ) education system we need to say so now. We need coverage in the papers, radio and on TV and then we can make this happen. I haven’t seen any money being taken from Free Schools and Academies for the few, when there are so many schools which need appropriate funding. Free Schools are not about education they are about social selection and elitism. Don’t believe me, take a trip to the Conservative Home website article on admissions policy and see what will come if we don’t object now.

I don’t believe that the case for these cuts in education has been proved. The Conservative spin campaign is masking the nasty ideology behind the re-engineering of our education system into a social and educational elitist organisation paid for by our money. The next thing to ‘go’ (ie change irrevocably) will be the admissions code. Remember you saw it here first.